Comment by zippergz | Hacker News Reader

Comment by zippergz | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

In my experience, Face ID is much faster and more seamless. Basically it's like my phone isn't locked because before I'd even have a chance to think about it, it's unlocked. I was VERY resistant to losing the home button, but I find that the new gestures are much more natural for me. Obviously this is a personal preference thing, but for quite a while I had a touch ID iPad and a Face ID iPhone, and it was really night and day how much nicer Face ID felt to me, and how nice it is to not have a home button wasting space on the phone. If they found a way to suppport Touch ID in addition to Face ID, without stealing space from the screen, I'm all for it, but I can't imagine going back to the old style of phone with no Face ID and a home button.

I really disagree. With TouchID my phone was unlocked before it even got to my face. With my iPhone X (which I've had since launch) I get lots of false positives. It also means I have to raise it, swipe as I raise it, phone gets in front of my face, small pause, faceid success, phone unlocks and displays home screen. This takes probably 1/4 to 1/5 of a second longer than TouchID where the device is already unlocked and at the home by the time I get it in my field of view.

Personally I would like to see an iPhone X with TouchID under the display WITH FaceID. So if I have gloves on or my finger is wet, no problem, FaceID takes over. If I'm laying in bed and holding my phone to close to my face, no problem, TouchID authenticates. It also means I can unlock my phone without picking it up off my desk with my finger.

You would get the best of both worlds and none of the drawbacks.

I'm the same way. I was an iPhone 7 hold out for a long time because I didn't see the value in Face ID or any of the other stuff and now I really regret holding out as long as I did. Face ID is so seamless and it's just so much smoother to do everything. Going back to my work phone is more than a bit awkward trying to remember how many times to tap or double press to do whatever. On the iPhone XS I have the gestures really make a lot of sense to me.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com